Fittingly, the year ended in a frenzy of false victimhood. Hopefully for the left, 2017 will be different, says Brendan O'Connor

There is a sense of unease as we hover between years, a sense of the world holding its breath briefly before being plunged back into a reality that increasingly distresses a lot of people. Some people are justifiably distressed by it all, others less so.

There is a sense of unease as we hover between years, a sense of the world holding its breath briefly before being plunged back into a reality that increasingly distresses a lot of people. Some people are justifiably distressed by it all, others less so.

The perception that celebrities are dropping like flies hasn't helped. It seems to be destabilising people in a slightly disproportionate way.

People who never rated George Michael when he was alive, who viewed him as a messy joke of a has-been, have suddenly decided he represents everything good about our culture, and the death of Princess Leia is a cornerstone tragedy for an infantilised generation of kidults, who love Star Wars and comic books.

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